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Dragon Age: Origins is the "Spiritual Successor" of BG. It is a strictly single player "Dark Fantasy" RPG built on what Bioware called "the Eclipse Engine." The game uses a "DnD like" rule system. The PC version of the game will be released with a Toolset that is promised to be more powerful and more accessible then those of previous Bioware games.

Since this is asked a lot: There will NOT be Multiplayer of DA:O. Perhaps it will be available in a sequel, but definitely not in DA:O.
******Patch 1.02 is out****** See linked thread for details (thanks Jeff-66)What this thread is about
This thread is here to give fellow gamers some general information on the game, to help newbies understand what the game is all about. The thread can also be used for technical help and general tips and tricks. SPOILER DISCUSSION HERE.

Please keep me updated on any info that you find, so I can keep the OP as updated as possible. Also, let me know if you think a section should be changed somehow. Thanks!

Table of Content

This first post (OP): general information on the game. Differences between PC and Console version. Useful links.

Planned contents:
- Compiled list of player tips, kind of a list of "Gee, I wish I knew that before I started the game." Also, some general technical support info.
- Mods. (I think keeping this one updated will be the death of me. )

Differences between PC and Console versions (or why you should play the PC version eventually )

Basically, Console version of the game is easier, and more action oriented. Whereas the PC version of the game will be harder, requires more tactical planning in battles. Console version will have game play more akin to that of Mass Effect, whereas the PC version will play more like BG (with lots of pausing).

At release, console version of DA will have a 3rd-person "over the shoulder" view that is NOT changeable. Only the PC version will have the "isometric view" (in addition to the 3rd-person view). post.

While the PC version of DA will provide a more complete experience. Bioware has done a fantastic job of porting the game to the console. All the changes (gameplay and UI) in the console version make sense for the console. As a die-hard PC-only gamer, I actually think that the "vanilla" game experience of DA on consoles will be just as complete as that of the PC.

The key benefit (or bane) of PC version is that it will be easily tweakable and more importantly, moddable. DA:O is poised to have a very active "modding scene." However, console players will be happy to know that Bioware has said that they plan to port "good" mods to the console versions of DA.

General info, or why you SHOULD play the game:

Full list here (updated semi-regularly)
In short, if phrases like "lots of unique NPC interactions and banters;" "In depth Party based combat systems;" "Deep character developement;" "lots of choices, with no clear indication of "good/evil;" "BG in 3D;" make you happy. Then you SHOULD get DA. (Oh did I mention there will be sex and lots of blood too?)

Decisions are just decisions, there are neither "good" or "bad"
[quote=LobsterMobster] *In response to being rewarded with a in-game shack for NOT nuking FO3 city Megaton*
Yeah, but if you set off the bomb in Megaton you are rewarded with a parking lot!

So, I am getting close to finishing this for my first play-through, and the Landsmeet did not go nearly as well as I was hoping it would.

Spoiler:

I had arranged for Alastair and the Queen to get married - neither one particularly wanted it, but it was the best compromise I could see - a known, liked capable ruler married to noble blood who can lead the nation in a battle. I had let the Elf slaver live so that I would have access to the proof of Loghain's involvement in that dirty business. I let the disgusting Earl's son out of his prison from Earl Howe's house to get his voice added to my side in the Landsmeet. I had the Templar who was chasing the Blood Mage who poisoned the Earl of Redcliffe willing to speak to that. I thought I had enough evidence and support to be able to end Loghain's usurping with minimal bloodshed, but the Landsmeet went in his favor.

Since this would obviously mean the end of the game, I guess I understand the game forcing you to fight the "rightful" ruler, but it still felt wrong. As expected, in a melee, my team won, and the Chantry called for an end to the fight before Loghain could be killed. So a duel, single combat, was called for. I had Alastair fight Loghain, which turns out to be a mistake, since he beheads his after winning the duel, ruining any hope of my arranged marriage working out. I gave Alastair the throne, since so many people expressed a belief that noble blood was required on the throne, and I still had some hope that Anora would change her mind with the rule out of her reach otherwise. Instead, Alastair says to lock her up, and she says she would have had him killed, so I guess I picked somewhat wisely there, even though the kingdom lost a capable ruler, and I pissed off a friend.

Now I am off to Redcliffe, my hopes of leaving King Alastair of the Grey Wardens with his new wife and taking the defeated and (hopefully) still useful Loghain to lead the armies of the land in a fight against an Archdemon crushed. Instead I take the armies of Ferelden to fight for survival with an unwilling King, a brutal killing dwarf, a dying Mage and a ranged Bard; but a lack of a tactical genius and a secure throne behind me.

Can anyone help assure me that I didn't mess up the Landsmeet beyond all repair?

You did fine. That's going to lead to one of 4 possible endings. Well, less than that, because that was a decision point. Game-wise, you should be fine.

Can anyone help assure me that I didn't mess up the Landsmeet beyond all repair?

There's really no "wrong" way for that to turn out, and what you have there is a pretty interesting tale in that its far different from the one I got. One of the things I liked most about that section of the game was how many different possibilities there seem to have been.

So, I am getting close to finishing this for my first play-through, and the Landsmeet did not go nearly as well as I was hoping it would.

Spoiler:

I had arranged for Alastair and the Queen to get married - neither one particularly wanted it, but it was the best compromise I could see - a known, liked capable ruler married to noble blood who can lead the nation in a battle.

Well that's the way I had my Landsmeet go. But it's been a few months, and I can't specifically tell you how I got there. That's where the wiki comes in handy, it can tell you what dialog lines to follow to get the desired result you want out of a situation.

So I was all prepared to sacrifice myself to take out the Archdemon. I had sent Morrigan away early on, and even though Wynne advised me to not get close to Lileana, I did it. I felt really bad about ignoring Wynne when Riordan told me about the fate one of us would have to face, knowing that I couldn't get Alastair set up as King only to have him die the next day, but it was what must be done to stop the Blight. Imagine my surprise when Morrigan got into Arl Eamon's estate in Denerim, with a way for me to survive the coming fight. It was a little silly that the resulting cut scene was set up with a playful, sexy feel, instead of the "duty must be served, and this protects my heart" feel that was actually going on.

We fight through the city, killing one General on the way - I really wish I had found the second one, his reinforcements were a pain during the final fight. After I killed the Archdemon, I got a moderately happy ending. Wynne would be an advisor to Alastair, when he wasn't dodging his royal duties. Lileana and I would ride off into the sunset, sadly leaving Zehvram behind - I don't think Lileana would have been too tolerant of sharing me, but I was tempted to invite him anyway. Sten went home, I was made a Paragon, the Dwarf who wanted entry to the Circle did really well there, the Elves lives were better. What I was really saddened by was the fate of the Dwarves. I had asked Alastair to provide more support to them in the Deep Roads, so the Dwarves were able to reclaim some of the tunnels. It seems that Harrowmont's reign was not terribly effective, and his death resulted in yet another mess for the Dwarven people.

Now I am torn, do I jump right into Awakenings (and will my companion at the end of Origins come with me?), or try some other paths through the main game to see what could have been different. I never followed much of Morrigan's story, and didn't have much to do with Sten or even meet Shale.

I really liked the game, though. I might have put a little bit more emphasis on "my character" than really needed, but that is just how I like to play RPGs.

Now I am torn, do I jump right into Awakenings (and will my companion at the end of Origins come with me?), or try some other paths through the main game to see what could have been different. I never followed much of Morrigan's story, and didn't have much to do with Sten or even meet Shale.

Your romantic interest won't follow you into Awakenings. It's implied she's off doing other things at the time.

I'm really sorry you missed out on the hilarity that is the conversation between the Warden and Shale. Oh man.

imbiginjapan on Vanquish:The difficulty is punishing but it knows enough to punish me while wearing stiletto heels and a push up bra, so I forgive it.

With the downtime of the EA servers, I lost interest in my game. Need to pick it back up again soon. Especially before The Witcher 2 comes out, though I'm scared of burning myself out on fantasy-style games.

Anyone know of an option to add Bioware-created items in a savegame? So far I've only found (complicated) ways of creating custom items, but not how to add items that are already in the game but not in your possession.

Why do I need this? Due to a bug that caused my main character to lose all its equipment.

Spoiler:

After rescueing the Queen of Ferelden and being captured in Fort Drakon, I never got my equipment back in the prison chest. The other party members and the non-equipped items are still there

Apparently this is a known bug, the solution being to unequip everything before the above happens. Thanks DA Wiki, I'll be sure to read everything before playing it. I'll just navigate around the spoilers. /sarcasm

With the ability to 'hack in' existing items in an existing savegame, I could just load a savegame where I had all the items, write down their names/descriptions and put them into my after-bug-savegame.

My suggestion? Go with the "Easy" mode, that's what I did when I decided to replay the Human Noble origin. Although after the game started to CTD after I tried to enter any area, I gave up. I should probably think about playing this game again..

I've been playing through this recently and the game is just broken for me. I'm going to spoiler the following, despite the lengthy time since release:

Spoiler:

I've gone to the mage tower to recruit some dudes to help a little boy whose mother i don't want to kill.... and now i'm stuck in the fade. Bioware have taken my team away from me.. i'm an archer rogue (supposedly i'm a bard, as that was what i picked at start up but the option to have that is "locked" with no explanation as how to unlock it). I'm boned. Seriously, i've been fine up until i've hit the mage section where i'm fighting guys that do more DPS and attack more times per second than me. I can take out one guy fairly easily - as long as i get to stun him and beat on him three or four times.

The problem i'm having is that mages/magic never misses and i can sit there with my special attacks missing or not activating and my normal attacks missing two or three times in a row. It's really frustrating. Not to mention that combat around corners/doorways and hit detection is seriously f*cked up here. I've got mages shooting me through the wall (sometimes with AoE) and my abilities don't even work properly around the doorway and corner areas which makes trying to lure off mages one-at-a-time very difficult even when i manage to do it.

Aside from this bone-headed design decision on Bioware's part, the game has been okay so far. Certainly it's not DA2.... I don't even think they should be "related" as sequels prequels like they are in their name. It makes no sense. I've had far more roleplaying in DA:O in the 12 hours or so i've put in than the whole 40+ of DA2. I feel more free to make my choices and be punished for them (or rewarded) in this game.

I've been playing through this recently and the game is just broken for me. I'm going to spoiler the following, despite the lengthy time since release:

Spoiler:

I've gone to the mage tower to recruit some dudes to help a little boy whose mother i don't want to kill.... and now i'm stuck in the fade. Bioware have taken my team away from me.. i'm an archer rogue (supposedly i'm a bard, as that was what i picked at start up but the option to have that is "locked" with no explanation as how to unlock it). I'm boned. Seriously, i've been fine up until i've hit the mage section where i'm fighting guys that do more DPS and attack more times per second than me. I can take out one guy fairly easily - as long as i get to stun him and beat on him three or four times.

The problem i'm having is that mages/magic never misses and i can sit there with my special attacks missing or not activating and my normal attacks missing two or three times in a row. It's really frustrating. Not to mention that combat around corners/doorways and hit detection is seriously f*cked up here. I've got mages shooting me through the wall (sometimes with AoE) and my abilities don't even work properly around the doorway and corner areas which makes trying to lure off mages one-at-a-time very difficult even when i manage to do it.

Aside from this bone-headed design decision on Bioware's part, the game has been okay so far. Certainly it's not DA2.... I don't even think they should be "related" as sequels prequels like they are in their name. It makes no sense. I've had far more roleplaying in DA:O in the 12 hours or so i've put in than the whole 40+ of DA2. I feel more free to make my choices and be punished for them (or rewarded) in this game.

Had you not already done the Mages Tower recruiting mission? The Fade section is a puzzle game, you need to figure out how to use the forms appropriately. It was one of my favourite sections of the game, even though doing it as a dwarf is tough because you can't use the lyrium veins to heal.

"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." ― H.L. Mencken

Aside from this bone-headed design decision on Bioware's part, the game has been okay so far. Certainly it's not DA2.... I don't even think they should be "related" as sequels prequels like they are in their name. It makes no sense. I've had far more roleplaying in DA:O in the 12 hours or so i've put in than the whole 40+ of DA2. I feel more free to make my choices and be punished for them (or rewarded) in this game.

Lower the difficulty. The fade is quite annoying to play through. Have you tried changing form?

I hadn't considered lowering the difficulty - can you raise it again afterwards?

I had changed form. The problem was that i only had a mouse form and a fire form... and the wizards cast spells that removed half my health in one go, knocked me over and/or stunned me so i moved more slowly.

I managed to get through the section i was stuck on in the end this morning. I basically lured them one by one, painfully reloading/saving the game each time i died/succeeded. Then i got the golem form and it was much easier....

MrDeVil909 wrote:

Had you not already done the Mages Tower recruiting mission? The Fade section is a puzzle game, you need to figure out how to use the forms appropriately. It was one of my favourite sections of the game, even though doing it as a dwarf is tough because you can't use the lyrium veins to heal.

I'm confused.... They're the same thing.

Also, there's nothing "puzzling" about this except my transformed forms' complete inability to hit the proverbial "sh*t" when i tell them to. Nothing more frustrating than an acolyte mage "dodging" your stone golem's attack.... They have really high dexterity i hear!

Also, there's nothing "puzzling" about this except my transformed forms' complete inability to hit the proverbial "sh*t" when i tell them to. Nothing more frustrating than an acolyte mage "dodging" your stone golem's attack.... They have really high dexterity i hear!

Yeah, the usual convention though is to do the Mages Tower early because of the stat boosts so the Tower is back in order if you go there later for the purpose that originally took you there.

As the Martian law enforcer says, if they are using fire spells you should be resistant to them in fire form. The puzzle is figuring out which of the tools they have given you are appropriate.

And yes, you can adjust difficulty as you like.

"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." ― H.L. Mencken

I just beat Dragon Age: Origins (Ultimate Edition) today. Not sure exactly how long it took me, I'll check after work. My main character was a dual-wielding warrior and my primary companions were Allistair, Leliana, and Morrigan.

Definitely a Baldur's Gate kind of game.

I did the deed with Morrigan. A bunch.

I don't think I got quite the best endings in my game. The dwarves didn't fare well and it sounds like the alienage could have gotten out better.

Certis: Quintin is both smart and attractive.

Fedaykin98: Good lord, I wouldn't have expected brilliance like that from that nemeslut Quintin Stone!

Yonder: It's weird to say this, but Quintin Stone may be the wisest person here.

I made the mistake of bringing in the Circle during one of the final battle maps. Those jerks threw fireballs and cones of cold all over the battlefield, including the middle of my guys. I don't feel bad that only 4 survived.

Certis: Quintin is both smart and attractive.

Fedaykin98: Good lord, I wouldn't have expected brilliance like that from that nemeslut Quintin Stone!

Yonder: It's weird to say this, but Quintin Stone may be the wisest person here.

I don't think I got quite the best endings in my game. The dwarves didn't fare well and it sounds like the alienage could have gotten out better.

I'm not sure if there is a particularly Best Ending for the dwarves, though I've never completed a playthrough where I let Behlen take the crown--he was too obviously evil for my good Wardens to be comfortable with, and my bad Warden was a prideful dwarf noble, so no way was he letting that happen, and I lost the save where I had a Warden who sided with him. I've never seen a very good Harrowmont ending, though--he's either weakened by civil war, or a totalitarian.

I don't think I got quite the best endings in my game. The dwarves didn't fare well and it sounds like the alienage could have gotten out better.

I'm not sure if there is a particularly Best Ending for the dwarves, though I've never completed a playthrough where I let Behlen take the crown--he was too obviously evil for my good Wardens to be comfortable with, and my bad Warden was a prideful dwarf noble, so no way was he letting that happen, and I lost the save where I had a Warden who sided with him. I've never seen a very good Harrowmont ending, though--he's either weakened by civil war, or a totalitarian.

I sided with Bhelen in one playthrough - he had his sh*t together for a couple of years before his paranoia grew worse. Then the dwarfs went and reactivated the golem-making anvil and everything went to sh*t.

Oh, I had the same issue some of you guys did: I imported my Blood Dragon Armor-wearing character into a DLC and was treated to a cut-scene of my buff male warden traipsing around in a skimpy loin cloth.

Certis: Quintin is both smart and attractive.

Fedaykin98: Good lord, I wouldn't have expected brilliance like that from that nemeslut Quintin Stone!

Yonder: It's weird to say this, but Quintin Stone may be the wisest person here.

Oh, I had the same issue some of you guys did: I imported my Blood Dragon Armor-wearing character into a DLC and was treated to a cut-scene of my buff male warden traipsing around in a skimpy loin cloth.